An Exploration of the English Translation of Naxi Dongba Classical Texts from the Perspective of Oral Poetics — Taking the English Translation of the Narrative Epic Lubanlurao as an Example
Drawing on Parry-Lord oral-formulaic theory as introduced into Chinese folklore studies, this article examines the 2020 English translation (by the author and Li Ming) of the Naxi love-suicide epic Lubanlurao. It identifies the poem's core oral formulas — fixed five-syllable sentence patterns, repeated seasonal/temporal frames, chain-linked (dingzhen) end-to-start rhyme, the distinctive "borrowed-word euphony" device, personification, and hyperbole — and analyzes, through paired original and translated passages, how the English rendering used free verse, syllabic correspondence, matched end-rhyme, and repeated parallel constructions to reproduce the epic's rhythm and emotional register where English has no direct rhetorical equivalent. It concludes that the translation preserves both the free, archaic quality of Naxi folk poetry and the disciplined structure that makes the epic effective as ritual-performance literature.
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